Yumiko instructed us on how to prepare the different dishes and we learned a few new tricks of the trade. My favourite was learning that the carrots (which are in a flower shape) are actually cut like that by using a type of cookie cutter! Verity had the honour of cutting those for us! Merry experienced whisking with chopsticks for the first time (that's very Japanese) to mix together the batter for the vegies and meat.
Yumiko brought an impressive range of vegies and meat for us to cook including mushroom, sweet potato, egg plant, carrot, green pepper type things, lotus root, a leaf type plant as well as shrimp, white fish and chicken. They were all cut into thin slices all ready to go.
The process of tempuring is quite simple...pick up the food, dip it into the batter and stick it in the oil. Yumiko was our 'chef' and told us that if you go to a restaurant the chef would cook the tempura for you at your table. We ate as she cooked, so everything was freshly cooked and piping hot. It all tasted soooooo good. My favourite was the lotus root. Verity loved the lotus root for a different reason, she could stick her chopsticks through the little holes to pick it up!
I (Jodi) was not a big fan of the tofu salad. Merry, knowing that I don't like the squishy tofu, was laughing the whole time and watching closely to see if I would eat it. She on the other hand loves the squishy tofu! I gave it a red hot go, mixing the shallots, ginger and soy sauce together and dipping the tofu in. The taste was really good but it's the texture I can't get past!
We invited Jono's parents to come and taste the tempura and Phillip was all very keen! So for his second dinner of the night he dug right in and loved everything! I think this made Yumiko very happy. Yumiko kindly made us dessert, a fruit gelatin which was magnificent. It had grapefruit, pineapple and kiwi fruit in it. Yummo!
Another successful cooking lesson and more dishes we can't wait to cook for everyone back home.
